~ A Very Very Long Year ~
First off Hello to all those who have hung on and kept my blog on follow.
Secondly I'm so sorry for being away for so long and not updating you ..
It's a long read below for those of you who are interested in what happened to me the last year.
If it's more than you are up to reading please know I understand !
It's been quite a year for us.
Where to begin ... Last year 2015 in January we received on our doorstep a letter letting us know we had 60 days to move out of our rental home. Rewind before that and just a quick little reminder that we had been dealing with my dad's chronic anemia for 3 years and the Dr.s unable to find the reason for it. So when we received the note the best way to explain how we felt is "The bottom dropped out" for us. We had not planned on moving ..had no idea what we were going to do and no less all this in 60 days. For myself and my parents it was so very overwhelming. We lived in our rental home for 8yrs, so for us even though it wasn't ours financially it had become home for us.
So we immediately began looking online at real estate seeing what was out there. Prices were way up no matter cost of homes and rents ..we couldn't find rent at the price we were paying everything was alot more. And if we bought a home we could do it but it would leave us virtually without anything in the bank to fall back on for emergency or cost's of upkeep on the house. So we decided it was time to leave the state of CA which had been something we had considered for several years but didn't act on because of my Dad's health. Now we really felt there was no choice.
Beginning of April we set out on the Road to begin our search first off in TX ..we had heard alot of good things about TX and thought it might be a good fit. I won't go into all the particulars from here on or this post would be a small novel. About 1 week after arriving in TX ... I noticed my dad looked very pale ..and mentioned this to my mom. She looked up a Blood Disorder Center to take him to, to get his blood level checked and he was vitually bloodless only at 5.6 .. for those of you who aren't familiar with those #'s ..that's about 1/3 to 1/4 of the blood he should have. So his anemia was bad ..his blood loss was great. So they sent us down to the local hospital for a blood transfusion ...and then a few weeks later an iron infusion and a few weeks later another iron infusion .. So much time passed we were not prepared for. Anyhow we decided that TX might not be the place for us due to their high cost of property taxes. Eveyone would tell us well TX doesn't have state tax ..and yes that is true but for my retiree parents and me being self -employed ..this didn't help ..my parents got refunds in the state of CA and I virtually paid little ....so it just didn't add up what the property taxes were coming too.
So off to our old stomping grounds Springfield, MO... we got to Mo ...and sadly we screwed up .. we got there looked around loved it, but honestly couldn't get over our love of TX .. especially Me. So after a week we headed back to TX to see if we could make it work ..
Long story short .. Dad became anemic again ...and mom had a jury duty notice that came in January that she asked for the delay in serving thinking everything would go smoothly and we would be in a house within a month after leaving. We called telling them of our situation and the girl told us there would be a warrant put out on my mom for not returning for Jury Duty .. so we were scared and didn't know what to do other than to return so she could serve and with my Dad's anemia growing worse again it looked like he needed to get back with a specialist so, what else to do than head back. The drive back to CA wasn't a good one alot of tears were shed.
Upon returning mom was called up to serve on a jury for 2 weeks ..dad went to his specialist who hesitantly took him back ... and found that he had a bleed but they didn't know where.
Fast Forward to today... After every test imaginable done to my dad ..they still cannot find the bleed that caused his anemia or still causes it leaving us with the life -long situation that we may never know and he just will have to watch his blood level and continue with iron infusions for life. But to get all those tests completed and then waiting inbetween them to see where blood levels were took months and months of just sitting and waiting. We considered just staying here in CA ..but over the summer and fall of last year rent costs sky rocketed along with house prices .. in fact my dad just talked to a couple yesterday who said they are trying to buy a house in our old neighborhood and the houses are getting multiple bids and they have yet to be able to get one for themselves.
We decided 3 weeks ago .. that we were going to call ahead get a Dr. in MO for my dad and get on the road be there in 3 days ..and we had about 10 houses mapped on the internet we were interested in purchasing. I got everything in place for us to leave on a Sunday ... and Then ...
Thursday of that week .. Flossie my 3 yr old english springer spaniel ..quit eating and acted funny. Well I thought the flu and at 10 that night got a cold cloth for her belly to bring temp. down if she was feverish. Turned her over and she was yellow ( jaundice). Immediately I took her to the local Pet ER ... and she has been diagnosed with AIHA Auto Immnue Hemolytic Anemia... "Seriously this couldn't be" ..anemia we have dealt with that for 4 years with my dad and now my dog. Well AIHA is a bad disease ..and she was near death. Basicly the body starts seeing the red blood cells as enemies and kills them off ..sometimes there are reasons why and other times not and sometimes the reason is impossible to find. We haven't found a reason for Flossies yet. She was in hospital for 5 days with 2 blood transfusions.. medication etc. She's been home now for 6 ..but is still in chronic condition with anemia. They basicly have to suppress the immune system to get it to stop attacking the red blood cells...and then hope that it will begin making it's own red blood cells again. So we are waiting for her body to kick in but it's going very slowly and the Dr.s are growing concerned for her. They are wanting to do a bone marrow procedure this week and I have a consultation tomorrow to go over all that entails before deciding on that being the right choice.
So our plans for leaving have been canceled for now. She isn't healthy enough to travel it literally could mean death for her..and it may be weeks before she is. So we are once again in waiting mode.
To say that this has been a trying and difficult year for us is an understatement and I have had to constantly remind myself when getting down, depressed, angry, sad, tears flowing, anxiety ridden that in the big scheme of things this is so small compared to what other people are going through in the world. At least I still have my Dad, Mom and Dog .. and we are blessed to have a place to stay that has really went above and beyond to accomodate us, financially it's been a struggle but God has provided, I have alot of good to be thankful for. It's just getting yourself to see the Good when you feel bad. But I'm doing better now.
It's been hard not having my business and work.. I have been blessed though and been able to work for several of my friends doing anything from photography, computer work, manual labor, design work, sewing projects with borrowed machines, and a housekeeping job at a wedding venue. I guess you can say I have been a jack of many trades this last year.
I am aching to get back to work creating and sewing and designing home goods ..my heart aches ..no yearns for it .. but in the Lord's good time... although I wouldn't be honest if I said that was hard to get to my heart and head some days.
Our plan still stands the same as soon as Flossie is well enough ..we will be heading back to MO ..to make it our home ..and business will resume at that time. I only hope it's salvageable and that we can get started again even if slowly ..again that's all in God's hands.
I'll try from now on to get some updates occasionally on here. I'm finally at a point of acceptance .."which has been a long road for me" ..that I feel comfortable sharing our journey this last year. I don't know why but when you're life is turned upside down and you don't have a quote normal living situation you begin to feel embarassed and ashamed as though the world is looking at you shaking it's finger in disdain. I know that's not true but your mind does tell you that. I'm passed that .. and now I'm onto what will be will be.. life's all about changes nothing never stays the same .. no truer words than those from an old Garth Brooks song from the 90's.
Keep us in your prayers ..and if you have a prayer request please share it with me I would love to pray for you too !
You can follow me on FB ...
Here I opened a little photography page "Sara Layne Photography" .. I'm an amateur learning ... I work shooting The Vintage Marketplace at Galway Downs, and then I just do some personal stuff. ....but it's an easy way to contact me if you want too.
Sending you all ...
